IN MY SHOES: Being No One’s Child
Jim Sollisch, a son whose mother wasn't as famous as Christopher Buckley's,writes about the loss of his mother at an age when “[p]eople seem to assume that the further you get from looking like a son, the less painful it must be for you to lose a parent”:
[No] matter how old you are there's a powerful sadness to being no one's child. It took me by surprise.
I miss my mom every day. She visits my dreams, nagging me. I ache to tell her what each of my five kids is doing. To show her the house my wife and I just bought. To let her know whom I ran into at the store. My longing surprises me because I, too, feel like I'm old enough to be immune from needing my mother. But I have learned that we are still children, walking around inside these aging bodies. …
My mother never saw the middle-aged man I have become. I existed to her in a permanent state of youth and promise. …
[O]n this Mother's Day, I realize that I am also grieving for the loss of my mother's son, that golden boy so full of youth and promise.
Comments